Public option may have new life

The public option limped out of August, battered and left to die in the Senate.

But its supporters are working hard this week to bring it back, against the odds, with a series of high-profile votes in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

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Supporters don’t expect any of versions of the public option to survive the Finance Committee votes. But the exposure is a welcome breakthrough, supporters say, after critics impugned optional, government-run health care plans all summer.

The key now is momentum, and backers are doing everything they can to convey confidence that President Barack Obama will eventually sign a health care bill into law that includes some sort of government coverage to compete with private insurers.

“The Senate floor is more favorable to the public option than the Finance Committee, and [negotiations with the House are] more favorable than the Senate floor,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who will offer two versions of the public plan when the Finance Committee reconvenes Tuesday.

“But we certainly want to begin the debate ... The more focus there is on the public option, the better it does. All the misunderstandings get cleared up.”

Still, there are signs everywhere that it remains an uphill fight. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office scrambled Monday to deny a report in The New York Times that the merged Senate bill — with competing versions from the Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees — would not include the public health option.

The White House has said it doesn’t consider the public option a crucial part of health reform but also has sent mixed signals of late. Obama told Univision earlier this month, “I absolutely do not believe that it’s dead.”

Meanwhile, in the House, the question is less about whether a public option will be in the bill than what it will look like.

Early on, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had promised to include some form of a public plan in the final House health care bill. And she hasn’t wavered much from that assertion, arguing liberals won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t include it. She also wants to preserve as much leverage as possible in negotiations with the Senate, making her reluctant to throw anything overboard unless absolutely necessary.

Liberals want the plan to reimburse health care providers at a slightly higher rate than Medicare. But moderate and conservative Democrats, who hope to ensure fair competition with private insurers and protect local doctors and hospitals, want to make sure the government has to negotiate directly with health care providers.